smitten kitchen

I love kale chips! I like to season them with chili powder, cumin and garlic!

I make kale chips about 3-4 times a week! I love them with nutritional yeast on them – adds a delicious, nutty, cheesy flavor!

OMG I might actually eat my greens this way!

Kale chips, chard chips, spinach chips — works for most greens. I haven’t tried it with collards yet, but that’s because everytime I see a bunch, I want to sautee it with garlic and top it with a poached egg.

i LOVE kale chips!

I have made these with lemon juice (tossed before they go into the oven) and they also taste great!

I love kale chips!! You make them look so beautiful :-)

I’m 100% with you– baking kale takes it from “Healthy Obligation Food” to “Who Cares How Nutritious This Is!?”

You made leaves into chips. Consider my mind blown…

Have you ever tried kale smoothies? They seem totally sick, but pineapple, mango, and banana all do the trick to cover up the bitterness– just make sure to blend it for long enough to avoid chewing chunks of kale.

Definitely going to try these chips, too!

How funny Deb, I just made this last night and ate today! For any skeptics, they really do taste like chips. So delicious! Totally transforms raw kale. Yummy and good for you! I want to try with a variety of spices (garlic, paprika, etc), and I love the idea of Parmesan!

Hope you are having a great trip!

I make these all the time, and they’re delicious. I like to toss a little bit of cider vinegar on there too before cooking them, it gives them a zing. We put our chips on sandwiches – yum.

hating that I prepped all of the kale for tonight’s dinner party last night. It is all carefully chiffonaded for steaming :(

Baked is my favorite way to eat greens! You can season them with anything, but olive oil, a splash of cider vinegar, and salt and pepper is my favorite. I’ve tried it with collards, Patsy – they’re good, but there’s still that…aftertaste. Also, they smell the worst while baking. This also works well for mustard, turnip and beet greens (which are by far my favorite, especially Detroit Red greens, as they’re pretty and sturdy and stay mostly chip-sized). Gotta say though, Deb, that kale was the first of the sturdy greens that I actually learned to like – it’s great in soup, and young kale is good raw if you chiffonade and bruise it.

A friend introduced us to kale chips just last weekend and they were so good I’ve made them twice this week alone! I love the idea of grinding them up and putting it on popcorn. YUM! Thanks!

I love kale! Also don’t care for the heavy braise flavor, but if you like these you might also like it roasted with more oil, a bunch of chopped garlic, and crushed red peppers… I usually do slightly hotter oven for tenish minutes. Great as a side, or piled on olive oil rubbed- toasted bread and topped with a fried or poached egg…

Crazy! I just made a batch of these last night. Yum :) And what a fun twist with the popcorn!

Seriously, chips made out greens? And they really taste like chips? This all sounds too good to be true…

I make these whenever I get a bunch of kale in my CSA box — so good! I think the Bon Appetit article started a revolution.

I discovered this idea last summer when I kept getting leafy greens in my CSA box that I couldn’t figure out how to enjoy, and kale chips are brilliant…my husband and I couldn’t get over how yummy they were, and they are so easy on top of that! Thanks for sharing!

I just got rid of all of my kale. I was all set to use it then I found a snail on it. Kind of killed the desire to eat it. Would Rainbow Chard work in this? I think the colors would be really pretty for a party. And its cheaper and easier to find in my neck of the woods than kale (mainly because we grow it).

brilliant–we’re big greens eaters here and I usually have tons of kale and swiss chard in the garden….I wonder if I could do this with the abundance of chard we always have on hand…

This is the best way I’ve eaten kale, I have a big bunch in the fridge that will be baked this weekend. Adding some vinegar makes for a salt and vinegar “chip” and makes it extra crisp.

I’ve started making these recently. I love them dipped in a little ketchup or sriracha!

Can’t wait to try this!
Although I’m the weird one who will eat greens – kale, chard, turnip, beet, collard — at any meal. And often just plain or steamed.
Thanks for introducing a new way to eat something!

We’ve been on a popcorn kick lately so this is actually perfect timing!

I made these last fall, for the first game of football season. We ate them instead of potato chips, and everyone loved them. Thanks for the reminder, I need to make them again. And the popcorn tip is amazing!

Well if you say they are actually crisp. Since I first saw a kale chip recipe I wondered how do you make a wet green crispy? But if you say it is possible, I might just have to try it.

I’ve made this before and it’s fantastic. I will say, though, that one of my all time favorite dinners is a soup that features kale and is deliciously bitterness-free. It’s got cannelini beans and garlic and broth, heavy on the cumin and rice vinegar. Yum, I promise.

They’re definitely crispy, but they’re also very fragile – not up to holding a substantial dip. You can layer them, but any more than 3 ply and they start not to crisp up right in the middle before the edges blacken. And they don’t taste like potato chips, but savory and good and not at all like stewed greens – I think they taste a little like crisp chicken skin.

Always have kale in the fridge for this exact reason. Kale “chips” with hot sauce or throwing a fresh bunch into smoothies is my preferred method.

I love the popcorn recipe, can’t wait to try that!

Kale makes me gag – I used to work at a Juice Bar where people were always ordering kale juice. Juicing kale is no easy task.

I have to say though, that looks pretty delishous.

We just made these for the first time a few weeks ago – so amazing! Who’d a thunk it?! :)

Even after having made kale chips (with organic curly kale, courtesy of my CSA), I’m still a dissenter. Kale tastes bitter and a little fishy to me. I’ve made kale-potato soup, braised kale, kale chips and it all tastes bad to me. It’s not that I don’t like greens; I absolutely adore every other variety I’ve encountered: mustard, collard, turnip, beet, kohlrabi, arugula – both young and mature. I’m happy for those who love it. Please eat my servings too.

I tried making these over the summer with my CSA produce, but it wound up just tasting wilted… any idea on what I did wrong?

Mmm I’ve seen kale chips all over the place, and these look amazzzzzzing!

Oh, I’m delighted by this! :-) I have two bunches of kale that are waiting to be done something with. :-) This sounds fabulous! :-)

I am totally going to try this, particularly the popcorn trick. the kids eat the popcorn, and I bet they’d eat it dusted with kale too. ha, ha, ha, ha! evil mother laughing

Yes! Kale chips! My fiance is O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D with kale, so it was more a matter of finding yet another way to eat it, but chips are easy and fun and SO delicious.

That’s exactly how I make my kale too!! I love the crunch, and since I’m salt obsessed, I usually use more salt and less olive oil. I’ve never thought to coat popcorn with crumbled kale…that is something I am officially planning to try. Thanks for the tip, and amazing photos, as usual!

Too bad I’ve harvested all my winter kale-this looks like a fun one to try, even though I love kale just steamed…

i tried my hand at kale chips with dinner on tuesday, but i tossed mine with the juice of about half a lemon and some cayenne to taste. they turned out great! i recommend adding a little lemon juice to your next batch.

Hmmm, I’ve never gotten into kale either. Sounds intriguing.

I just made these two days ago. You must be reading my mind!

This is pretty much the only way I can eat kale, I’ve tried others but this is my favorite. I also add in a teaspoon of some Indian spices we get at the specialty market (MDH Chunky Chat Masala), which we also use on our homemade fries as well. yum!

I add a little bit of vinegar and furikake to mine and we can eat an entire head of kale in one sitting.

Another great use for kale with no bitterness is creamed kale. It’s delicious.

another delicious use for lacinato kale is to chiffonade it and make a salad with ricotta salata, olive oil, lemon juice, and shallot. it truly is amazingly delicious.
here is a recipe, though usually i use more lemon juice. and you want to make sure the kale is super-thinly cut.

www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lacinato-Kale-and-Ricotta-Salata-Salad-236940

Very cool!! I love Kale!!

Part of our health program at work is to bring a healthy snack. Thanks for the great idea. Not sure they are healthy, but at least it looks healthy!

I make Kale chips to my children and they love them! It’s a great way to make them eat Kale, which, like you, I am not a big fan of. I am kind of against snacks, but at least, this is better than out-of-the-bag-fish-like-crackers!

All right, all right. I’m going to have to finally give in and make kale chips. I’ve seen them all over, but I love kale so much that I tend to hoard it for finishing off my rice and grain meals.

ahh! you realize kale-chip dusted popcorn is a homemade, more legit version of veggie booty, right?! genius.

As a southerner, I’ve only just come to love all the “assertive” greens. The trick is all in the cooking. In a a LARGE pot of water, boil bitter greens for 5-7 minutes. Then drain out ALL the water and even squeeze them. Then start your recipe. My traditional is to warm garlic in olive oil and simply saute the kale/other greens for 2-3 minutes. A sprinkling of bacon (or using bacon fat instead of olive oil) is pretty good too! Many people like a splash of vinegar ob greens, but it isn’t to my liking.

For kale newbies, I would suggest trying flowering kale. I think it’s a bit sweeter than other varieties… and it’s purple! A salad of raw flowering kale, apples, shredded beets & hazelnuts has a lovely balance of earthiness and sweetness. Mmm now I need to go make one!

I love kale chips, been making them for ages!! They have become so trendy now!

Must try sprinkling it on popcorn like you did! :)

I had these at a restaurant last night and was trying to figure out how they made it. Theirs was spicy and awesome. I guess I’m still wondering how they did the spice – but this is a start – thank you!

A friend mentioned kale chips and their deliciousness to me just the other day! Good timing. I love kale, but buy it frozen if the farmer’s market isn’t on. (It’s really good with chorizo, in a crockpot, stewed. Yum.) I will be trying this.

I made this last year after seeing the lovely Jacques Pepin make it. There was something about the delightful crackle it made when he touched it that lured me to try it. I thought I HAAAAAAAATED kale until I made this. My friends are quickly converting to kale worship! I’m not a huge popcorn fan, but I love the kale so much now I have to try your popcorn dusting technique!

I tried this once, but they were bitter and tasted like the bottom of an ashtray. They weren’t burned, so I don’t know what was wrong. I might have to try again, but I’m hesitant…

kale chips are so good!!!!

Yes, I’ve recently endeavored to make them too; while I enjoy kale in cooking recipes, my kids sometimes tire of it, but not of these! Everyone gobbles them up as soon as they’re done! Our favorite recipe is a bit more involved than oil & salt and comes from the website deliciouslivingmag.com (if you search for kale chips you’ll find it). They use a sweet/salty/sour sauce that is really great!

The great thing about kale is that it’s tasty all the way from raw to cooked-to-death. I love sauteing or roasting it until it gets nice crispy, caramelized edges. I also love it in hearty minestrone-style soups.

Deb, thanks for the mention in your post. Aren’t kale chips lovely? We have been making them for a couple years now. A friend of ours introduced us to them – they dehydrate theirs. I did not want to buy another gadget for our already small kitchen so we started baking them. I love how creative you can get with the recipe. One of my favorite ways is with a little chili oil or soy sauce. I will have to try your idea of crushing them over popcorn, great snack idea! Or maybe crushed over rice? YUM!

YUM! I will be trying this… Also, if you have more kale leftover, it’s fabulous for pesto sauce.

We, too, have that giraffe! Sophie, I belive she is named.